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THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



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THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 



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ALFRED ANTOINE FURMAN 



NEW YORK 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 

1922 






COPYEIGHT 1922 
BY 

ALFRED ANTOINE FURMAN 



Limited Edition ' 
255 Copies on White Antique Paper 
5 Copies on Japanese Vellum v 



C1A692846 



DEC 26 '22 






TO 

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT 

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT 

EX-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES 



ANNOUNCEMENT 
* * 

The poems published in this volume constitute a 
sequel to the work entitled Martial Lyrics, Poems 
on the War for Democracy, which appeared in 
1918, dedicated to President Wilson. The pieces of 
that collection commented in metrical form on the 
leading events of the first year of our participation 
in the World War. This series continues the same 
method during the second year of that contest, 
including the subsequent occurrences terminating 
in the signing of the Versailles Treaty by Germany. 
These verses were originally printed in the Passaic 
Daily News ; and now, collected in this manner, 
compose a lyrical commentary on events, men and 
nations during the greatest struggle in the history 
of men. The opinions and sentiments expressed in 
them may seem too impassioned for the calmer days 
of peace and exhaustion which have followed the 
colossal conflict ; but, as they faithfully reflected the 
feelings of the majority of the American people 
during that painful period, I have dismissed them 
to the press without change or modification. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 

* * 

Page 

The League of Nations 19 

Liberty Day 25 

Propaganda 27 

The German State 28 

Rumania 30 

Red Cross Nurses 33 

Americans at Cantigny 34 

The Kaisers' Treaty 36 

General Foch 37 

United States Marines 38 

World Dominion 40 

The Piave 43 

The Llandovery Castle 44 

The Fall of the Bastille 45 

Old Glory 46 

Crossing the Marne 48 

The Canteen 51 

Battles in the Air 52 

The Beginning of the End 53 

The War Lord 54 

The Retreat 56 

The Argonne 58 

The New Draft 61 



16 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

Page 

A Dictated Peace 62 

Saint Mihiel 64 

The Soviet Reign of Terror 65 

The Austrian Note 66 

The Lost Battalion 68 

Bulgaria 71 

Turkey 72 

Three ! 73 

Austria 74 

Germany 76 

Nemesis 78 

France 80 

A Rapier Thrust 82 

In the Toils 85 

The Broken Sword 86 

Four ! 88 

Ode to Victory 90 

The Surrender 92 

The League to Enforce Peace 94 

The Land of Freedom. 97 

William Hohenzollern 98 

The March to the Rhine 100 

The Armistice 102 

The President in France. . 104 

England 106 

The Watch on the Rhine 108 

The New Year 113 

Theodore Roosevelt 115 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 17 

Page 

The Red Flag 116 

Arabia 118 

His Return 120 

The Vacant Chair 123 

Poland 124 

Armenia 126 

The League of Nations 128 

Clemenceau 130 

Marching Home 135 

Home Again 136 

The Indemnities 138 

A New World 143 

The Exile 144 

The Victory Loan 146 

Fiume 148 

Versailles 153 

The Treaty 154 

To the Jersey Troops 156 

The Ocean Flight 159 

The Terms 160 

The Last Phase 162 

Ode to Peace 164 



* * 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 19 



THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

* * 

Old War had done his worst ; for ages long 

Man had been driven by his lash and strong 

Right arm thru weltering paths of human blood 

Which rose on every side, a Red Sea flood, 

To sweep away his culture and his race, 

Giving this earth again to the embrace 

Of desolation, and a silence deep 

Save where the homeless waves moan, sob and leap 

In fury on some rock-bound coast, or where 

The voice of hungry lions tears the air 

Reposing on the desert, when at morn 

They issue from their haunts of brake and thorn. 

War early found that fountain of a youth 

Eternal, and if age in robes uncouth 

Attired his face and form, his ruthless soul 

Never escaped from guidance and control 

Of malice, hate, delight in misery : 

All that the ages built so patiently 

In architecture, painting, letters, all 

The wealth of town and country, bower and hall. 

Meeting his vicious eyes, fell under ban ; 

And at his bidding crimson rivers ran, 

And on their wreck-strewn eddies in a day 

The labors of a year were tossed away. 



20 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

And life more precious still was his dread mark, 
Torn from the golden light, plunged in the dark 
Ere it could truly know the deep intent 
And purpose of this earthly banishment; 
Like flowers that lift their heads in early spring 
To charm with beauty, and their odors fling 
On the chill air, assailed by surly snows 
And harsh winds, fall, surrender to their foes, 
And leave hearts weeping: thus the despot old 
Entered with angry brow and menace bold 
Each household, careless of its mournful tears, 
To find food for his hungry swords and spears. 

For ages thus the cruel monster reigned 
Over men's souls and bodies, and disdained 
Prayers, charters, laws ; he seldom slept, nor knew 
Sabbath or holiday, but kept his crew 
Ever on deck, with cutlass stained in hand, 
His creatures marching with a stirring band, 
Recruits soliciting from each sad land, 
And his request was always a command, 
For the charmed world lay abject at his feet: 
When nations groaned, his triumph was complete, 
And in their cup of woe he toasted deep 
The millions plunged in an eternal sleep. 

But yet he grieved his sway was partial ; here, 

There, on the earth peace dwelt, and breathed an air 

Delightful, wealth creating by her toil 

In lands of plenty, rich with corn and oil ; 

And War saw that, and the contentment deep 

Clothing those regions, and the little sleep 

He snatched at times was murdered, and he bade 

His minions drilling by the Baltic sad 

To march, and sheathe their daggers in the breast 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 21 

Of those provoking states that dared protest 
His drafts on them, till all the world should be 
Swimming in blood and choked with enmity. 

His minions started at his dread command, 

And drenched in woe and slaughter each fair land ; 

But from this field of agony arose 

A champion brave who could withstand the blows 

Rained on the weak, — the great Democracy 

In peace abiding by the western sea : 

She grimly armed, in the arena sprang 

To rescue peoples from that monster's fang, 

And in War's bowels drive the very sword 

Which had for ages made him sovereign lord 

Of this scourged earth, to break that sword, and wide 

Scatter its fragments on the ocean tide. 

And War, defeated, masters knew ; aghast, 
His furious eyes upon the victors cast, 
And saw no pity there: death was his doom, 
His future but an epitaph and tomb 
Recording all his vices ; on his throne 
Peace to be seated in her radiant zone, 
Wealth in her lap, a horn of plenty laid 
Down at her feet, and in her hand displayed 
The olive, while a League of Nations stands 
Watchful, protecting her on seas and lands, 
And filling in the bitter stream of tears 
Which flowed unceasing thru the vanished years. 

This Calvary will supplement the first: 
There died the best of beings, here the worst : 
And now when War, old Satan's readiest tool, 
Has breathed his last, the Christian's cherished rule 
May govern, — charity long crushed to earth 



22 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

Shall rise again in a propitious birth 

To gladden men, and build a temple great 

Where Justice with her balance sways the state. 

And Probity in her transparent vest 

By Health with her innocuous serpent rest, 

Tranquillity seen on her column lean 

Near Liberty, our own appropriate queen. 



* * 



MAY 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 25 



LIBERTY DAY 

* * 

To the drums' rolling beat, 
And tramp of countless feet 
Along the famous street, 
The hosts for liberty 
Now, and resolved to be 
Thru all their future, free, 
Went marching ; in the glancing light 
Of April's blandest day their banners bright 
Flung proudly to the breeze, an exalting sight 
Which made the nation's purpose manifest 
To spare no effort till the Prussian pest 
Was throttled, and its menace laid at rest. 

No, not for nothing wake 
Such feelings for the sake 
Of the imperilled stake 
We in that freedom hold, 
Our legacy of old, 
Our ideals manifold 
Rooted and blooming in that sacred soil 
Whereon we never grudged the sorest toil, 
Of which no tyranny can us despoil 
While life remains, and in our hearts we feel 
Those lofty sentiments, that fervent zeal 
Which, all else failing, to the sword appeal. 



26 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

Let them who lit this fire 
To achieve their fierce desire 
For conquest, find it the pyre 
Of that malignant scheme 
Born in a hideous dream, 
By an infernal stream 
With Satan smiling that his dateless reign 
Over the ages has not been in vain 
While Prussia follows in his ghastly train, 
Making this world a colony of hell ; 
Yet knows the courses of the stars foretell 
Freedom will win at last, and here will dwell. 



* * 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 27 



PROPAGANDA 

• * 

To manufacture lies 
To claim an honored prize 
For infamies that cultivate 
The noxious soil of national hate, 
To set at naught the sternest laws 
Of adoptive lands when Prussia's cause 
Conflicted, to assail the head 
Of countries Where they were born and bred, 
To equip and start on their dark road 
Atrocious rumors, to unload 
On nations struggling to keep free 
Motives and crimes which Germany 
Fathers and loves, — such are the actions bold 
Of German plotters paid with German gold. 

We called the Indians wild; 
But they were as a child 
Compared with them who drink the pool 
Of poisonous thought in Treitschke's school : 
The red man had no Christian light 
For centuries poured upon his night; 
He had no Goethe to expound 
The duties which this life surround; 
He but obeyed the impulsive call 
Which nature makes on each and all; 
And yet we would not care to say 
He sank as low in his poor day 
As in our own the brutal Prussian lord 
W T ho lives, and who will perish, by the sword. 



28 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE GERMAN STATE 

* * 

What is the German State? Is it a realm 
Clement, by sages ruled, one at the helm 
Whom wisdom guides, and in the ports of peace, 
The genuine harbors of the golden fleece, 
Anchors the nation deep? A State where lives 
Hope for the poor and the oppressed, that gives 
Merit protection and the waited chance 
To hurl against the world a lightning lance, 
And rise to eminence by force of will? 
Where truth is honored and held fast, men still 
Pressing right onward to an unseen goal 
To drain, while summer lasts, life's golden bowl? 

And no ! far different is the German State ! 

An entity to which men abdicate 

All they possess of virtue, and enlist 

In souless dark battalions which subsist 

On woe and carnage; where morality, 

Hissed and despised, must fold its tents and flee 

To faithful lands ; where murder is an aft 

Which German subjects must condemn their heart 

To sanction and applaud ; where every crime 

Which would drag other countries thru the slime 

Of infamy, must be condoned, be made 

A laurel round the warrior's bloody blade. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 29 

This is a theory our age illumed 

At last by conscience, has for ever doomed; 

And stands in holy arms to extirpate. 

The darkest ages fondled it, elate, 

Striving to make this life a martyrdom 

For man : he silent died, or thru blood swum 

To some sad isle of peace, only to be 

Pursued and tortured so inhumanly 

He fain would seek a solace and relief 

In the cold arms of death. But now this thief 

Of life and happiness, still ranging wild, 

Shall be arrested, and from earth exiled. 



* • 



30 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



RUMANIA 

* .* 

You have just tasted, much against your will, 
A German peace, and found it husks and swill : 
A province seized, once bulwark to the foe; 
The fertile plains where so exuberant grow 
Life-giving grains, subjected to the land 
Whose evil leaders your destruction planned, 
Imputed to your guilt; vast fields of oil, . 
Source of your wealth, the truculent victor's spoil ; 
Betrayed by him who filled the Russian throne, 
Flung to the dogs of war, struggling alone, 
Beset by enemies, stripped, scourged, and bare 
To killing winds from Prussia's bone-strewn lair! 

Have patience! We will right your grievous wrong: 

To us they sang the same alluring song 

Of peace, but we discerned beneath the skin 

Of a meek lamb the wolfish face within, 

And sternly declared that with the Prussian fraud 

We only parley with the gun and sword ; 

No peace with Germany uncrushed we sign, 

No treaty with the Hohenzollern line 

Founded on rapine, and displaying now 

Thirst for dominion slaked in blood, with brow 

Brazen to ask we pardon infamy 

Unparalleled, while go the culprits free! 

* * 



JUNE 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 33 



RED CROSS NURSES 

* * 

How charming in your red and white, 
With gentle hand and glances bright, 
You move among the nightly throng 
A visible song! 

And ever on the crowded street 
Your gracious presence pleased I meet, 
Within your spotless raiment see 
Pure charity. 

But on the distant tented fields 
What comforts your devotion yields 
To them maimed, bleeding, who life give 
That we may live! 

When shriek a myriad angry shells. 
Drowning the fierce, exultant yells, 
Death bringing, you, by love's command, 
There, fearless, stand. 

Intrepid, zealous, with a soul 
Blazing in gold on duty's roll, 
Your deeds such sacrifices raise 
Beyond our praise. 



34 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



AMERICANS AT CANTIGNY 
To L. D. R. 

* * 

From overseas they came to show 
The credulous, king-grovelling foe 
America was in the fight 
With all her power to strike and smite. 
And never to lay by the sword 
Until the Hun a peace implored. 

At Cantigny her soldiers brave 
An instance of their courage gave, 
Inflicting on the enemy 
Losses by which he may foresee 
The fatal end, and subdue the sneer 
With which he hailed her coming here. 

In time the reckless Boche will learn 
Faith may reside with valor stern ; 
That men may wield a sword, yet feel 
Compassion thru their bosom steal ; 
Standing in blood still bend the knee 
To virtue, honor, chivalry. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 35 

Think not we seek a compromise, 
Or can be lulled by plaints or lies : 
Surrender unconditional 
The only terms to criminal 
Opponents we will grant today, 
Or while we in this conflict stay. 

And neyer let your boding mind, 
Poor minions of such leaders blind, 
Forget that in our injured land 
Which sends across yon gallant band, 
Millions of youth in life's fresh bloom 
Are arming them to wreak your doom. 



* • 



36 s THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE KAISERS' TREATY 

* * 

And so your Majesties have made 

A brand new compact to invade 

Far countries when the present strife 

Is ended, that turmoil be rife 

In every land, and red war be, 

As now, your greatest industry? 

Poor sword ! Never again to sleep, 

But vigils open-eyed to keep 

Over the world, to throw your sheath 

Away, and in the very teeth 

Of frightened peace to thrust your blade, 

And thru wide crimson torrents wade! 

Men must weave more of flesh and blood 
On looms of love, to feed the flood 
Of slaughter which will constant pour 
In widening circles on each shore, 
To execute your royal schemes, 
Those visions of sweet Prussian dreams! 

For such a fate we must prepare 
Unless we cleanse your azotic lair, 
Turning against your murderous breast 
The weapon you have made the test 
And seal of empire, in a day 
When moods of peace the nations sway. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 37 



GENERAL FOCH 

* * 

Another German drive brought to an end ! 
How many more against us can they send? 
Your strategy their onslaughts foiled again, 
And carpeted the terrain with their slain. 
Let them come on! With valor, tactics, skill 
You are prepared a million more to kill 
Of those fierce Huns who ravage your dear 

France 
And bombard Paris, the inheritance 
Of the whole world, and where in by-gone days 
I quaffed so eagerly, with fond amaze, 
The cup of art and beauty, at the streams 
Sparkling and iridescent with such glorious dreams. 

To your unrivalled genius let me pay 
The tribute of my wonder in this day 
You bring the fourth offensive to a pause, 
And seal the triumph of the Allied cause. 
Two million men your orders execute 
With cheerful confidence, the patriot fruit 
Grown in their breast. Two million, have I said ? 
Nay, fighting on their native soil, the dead 
In equal numbers from their narrow bed 
Arise, and for the land where they had bled 
Would bleed again, as at your side they tread 
Doubling your strength when by such hallowed 
sources fed. 



38 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



UNITED STATES MARINES 
To H. L. 

* * 

What great traditions cluster round 
Your service on the sea and land, 

How stirs the patriot blood at sound 
Of those proud deeds your valiant band 

Performed in every part of earth 

Since this Republic had its birth ! 

And I who trace an ancestry 

In this land guarding freedom's shrines, 
To Sixteen hundred thirty-three 

Thru Puritan and native lines, 
Versed in your records may proclaim 
The honors due your cherished name. 

In the Bahama isles your sword 

Was first baptised in victory, 
But greater glory yet was poured 

Upon it when in Tripoli 
Our arms avenging fell, and laid 
Embargo on the pirates' trade. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 39 

In Eighteen Twelve, in Mexico, 

And when the South from duty fled, 
You met undaunted each new foe 

And numbered them among- the dead, 
Until your heroic corps became 
A synonym for martial fame. 

Now when the Entente, panting, stands, 

The last defense of liberty 
Against the infamous Teuton bands, 

You lead this nation of the free 
That has resolved to seek and slay 
The Prussian dragon cost what may. 



* * 



49 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



WORLD DOMINION 

* * 

Proud hearts, ambitious souls, in every age 
Surrendered freely to the seductive rage 
For gold, land, power, that splendid trinity 
Which claims, with worship of some Mystery, 
Man's homage, and in paths of rash endeavor 
With tireless counsel leads him on for ever. 

But all who thus aspired in former times 
To capture such a fortune by great crimes, 
Have trod on water, and have met their doom ; 
Or if they have descended to the tomb 
With measure of success, seeds of swift decay 
Were planted, and their triumphs swept away. 

The nations of the earth which by the sword 
Carved empires, and their blood so guilty poured. 
No longer in the manuscript of life 
We read ; but snared by the adultress strife 
Sleep on oblivion's shore, and pay the debt 
Which careful nature never can forget. 

No world dominion has the regal sun 
Smiled on ; it can not be by soldiery won ; 
Race, climate, tongues, discordant creeds, forbid, 
And over all an eternal fiat, hid 
Deep in the jealous breast of destiny, 
Is clearer proof that it shall never be. 



JULY 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 43 



THE PIAVE 

* * 

When crossed his stream the obnoxious foes 
Indignantly the river rose, 
Abetted by the melting snows, 
And hemmed the Austrians in. 
Exclaimed the river-god : It were a sin 
To invade and devastate my sunny land ; 
Untimely perish the predacious band 
That war's flames have such long time fanned ; 
And while my waters swell and foam, 
Strike, Italy, for altar, country, home! 

Piave, in most angry mood, 
Gathered from far and near his liquid brood, 
And piled his raging waters high 
Beneath a scowling sky. 
In vain the Austrian turned to fly : 
Death lay before, death lay behind 
Where rolled the tumid waves with fury blind. 
The surly tide ran deep with blood, 
And to the astonished sea a crimson flood 
Thousands of pallid corpses bore; 
While on the trembling shore 
The Italian sword grew weary as it slew, 
Pausing to offer tribute due 
To the pleased river-god and all his retinue. 



44 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE LLANDOVERY CASTLE 

* * 

Another infamy! Another crime! 
Plunging your Huns still deeper in that slime 
Where you have wallowed with such zest and 
glee, 
Lost, branded as the pariahs of our time. 

With honor gagged, and voice of mercy mute, 
Frenzy for rule has borne its bitter fruit; 

And all the purpose of your fighting now 
Is plunder, murder, sacrilege and loot. 

In every quarter of the globe is spread 
A cloak of maledictions on your head ; 

And prayers are winged to nerve the mighty arm 
Lifted to lay you in a bloody bed. 

From every land, from every sea, ascend 
The spirits of your victims; here they wend 

In endless numbers, and bestow such power 
On freedom's sword the Prussian reign will end. 

The system that has formed you will go down ; 
Your military bandits and the crown 

Ensnaked with horrors, crusted with foul wrongs. 
In sea of dark oblivion we will drown. 

And not for ages shall the shame and guilt 
On which the Hohenzollern throne is built, 

Be wiped away, men pardon and forget 
The blood of innocence which it has spilt. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 45 



THE FALL OF THE BASTILLE 

* * 

Symbol of arbitrary power, 

Each bastion, rampart, tower 

With blood cemented, over all 

A despot's banner drooping like a pall ! 

In cells beneath the ground, where night 

Reigned ever, and despair's deep blight 

Mildewed the soul, a royal will 

Could blast and kill; 

The prison air dank, heavy, chill, 

Shroud of the victims ; dropping ooze the funeral 

strains 
Of man born free yet everywhere in chains ! 
Black night, and blood-red dawn! O Liberty, 
My queen, the world had all forsaken thee ! 

But in the heart of France, still dwelt 
An energy which, tho it long had knelt 
Before the throne, arose and desperate dealt 
That throne its death-blow ; tore its symbol down ; 
And gave the nation back its old renown. 
The instruments of torture had their day ; 
Now, rack and wheel were swept away : 
From ruins of that fortress grey 
A form emerged with face benign, 
And builded strong a glorious shrine 
Where in all tempests of the mind, 
All plots, devices, and reactions blind, 
France and the world a noble refuge find. 



46 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



OLD GLORY 
July 4, 1918 

* * 

On every land, on every sea 

The emblem of humanity, 

The cherished sign of one great people free, 

Beacon to them who wish to be! 

This day you are the welcome guest 

In all the countries of the west; 

On elder air of Asia fly ; 

In proudest capitals of Europe vie 

With their own ensigns to announce and ratify 

A league of nations under freedom's sky. 

Peru has made your natal day 

Her very own, in which to pay 

Her admiration of unselfish sway ; 

Brazil and Uruguay, 

The largest and the least 

Of southern lands, make it their feast, 

And you its consecrated priest; 

On Westminster your colors wave 

Beside the lion banner whose defenders brave, 

Like yours, would never, living, be a Prussian slave. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 47 

Beneath your folds, in the serenest air 

Of summer, and the ambrosial fare 

Of liberty partaking, thousands came 

Marching, line after line, one only aim 

Their souls pervading, like a litany 

Of patriot fervor, grace and loyalty. 

To the beholders it an omen seemed 

Of what they hoped, of what they dreamed : 

The melting pot at last was found ; war was its 

name, 
And every foreign tie has perished in that flame. 



* * 



48 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



CROSSING THE MARNE 

* * 

On these steep banks, two hundred thousand strong, 

We doughboys nifty stand, 
The valiant vanguard of a mighty throng 

To help this ravished land ; 
The Heinies tremble, and are on the run : 

O doughboys, strike again, 
And never let up till your chesty Hun 

Is scattered on the plain! 

The Marne is swift, and flows a bloody stream, 

For Fritz has dyed it red, 
A moment wakened from his foolish dream, 

Then shuffled with the dead : 
Too far he wanders from his Prussian den, 

O doughboys, run him back; 
The Kaiser's game is up when U. S. men 

Get out upon his track. 

Quick clear the way, and press on to the Rhine, 

This job the doughboys boss, 
And underneath the lindens we will dine 

Till Potsdam comes across; 
Then see us, chortling, write in Berlin town 

Terms ending its career, 
When Kaiser Bill may sell his useless crown, 

And pawn his sword for beer. 



AUGUST 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 51 

THE CANTEEN 
To A. C. 

* * 

Here they may rest, and break their fast, 
Or take at noon ampler repast, 
And when the dews of evening fall. 
Here, friends and fonder ones may call, 
And chat with these defenders while 
They listen gravely, speak and smile, 
As in the fountains of kind eyes 
They see reflected mingled sighs, 
And pride and love. The summer day 
Is all too short, and glides away 
Serenely as they sit and hear 
These parting words, these accents dear; 
And like a miser treasure them 
To wear in tender memory's diadem. 

Soon they will cross the seas that seem 
So narrow now, lands to redeem 
From an invader that defies 
Bonds, fate, earth, the patrician skies 
Calm but relentless. In the field, 
In trenches, these sweet thoughts will yield 
A fragrance to the soul, a power 
To the strong arm that brings the hour 
Of triumph nearer to the cause 
Enshrining still the righteous laws 
The past has given us ; to chain 
The beast that has so many slain ; 
To crush for aye the savage race 
Which has on mankind smeared such deep disgrace. 



52 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



BATTLES IN THE AIR 

* * 

In regular battalions, swift or slow, 
Beneath the tumbled clouds sleeping like snow 
On the far azure hills, the air-planes sail 
Graceful as swans, rise, fall, turn, scale 
The vapory turrets, breaking ranks, 
Then plunging in the hazy banks, 
Or dropping headlong down 
Swift as an arrow, seeming thus to drown 
In aerial seas, anon to form again 
A faultless squadron on the ethereal plain, 
Its course resuming like a regiment 
Long-drilled, complacent, proud and confident. 

What is that speck on the horizon's rim ? 
Quickly emerging from the misty brim 
Of lands remote, an enemy appears, 
And rapid toward the nonchalant airmen steers. 
At once to right and left the fleet deploys, 
Advances, opens fire, with artifice annoys 
Van, rear, to flank and overwhelm the foe. 
Rumble its guns in spick, spat notes, flames 

overflow 
The hostile craft, some droop, slide, fall, 
Shot-riddled, burning ; others, injured, crawl 
Painful away, while the remainder beat, 
Dismayed, with wounded crew, a perilous retreat. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 5J 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 

* * 

With tramp of hurried feet, and deep exulting cries 
The avenging armies drive the foe that sullen flies 
Disordered, leaving men, supplies and guns 
Strewn on the field, as, "Perish all the Huns !" 
Rings in the ears of them who flee this tide 
Raging with violence on every side. 

The day of reckoning comes ; the Prussian crimes 

Piling on horror horror in these war-fed times, 

Which man dishonor, and Heaven's mercies strain, 

No longer shall the page of history stain, 

But scourged from every violated land 

The evil race dies in the fire its hatred fanned. 

The dynasty which led this brutal force 

Against the world, must go ; no feigned remorse 

For its iniquities one moment shall avail ; 

Its name shall be a hissing, and a tale 

To warn the nations, an example here 

That villains, tho they wear a crown, may fear. 



* * 



54 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE WAR LORD 

* * 

Our peace offensive fails! And can it be 

The German armies always victors, flee? 

The Allies so despised have dared to chase 

Divisions which before they feared to face! 

Treason is striding thru my ranks, the foe, 

The only foe, that could so overthrow 

My arms, my veteran soldiers who have made 

War, plunder, and destruction their sole trade ; 

Whose banners they have borne thru helpless lands, 

Looting by stern necessity's commands, 

To raise the prowess of the Teuton race 

Above all aliens, Kultureless and base! 

For years we planned this struggle, the deep 

thought 
Nursing how that our armies could be brought 
To such a state that when we struck at last 
Foes would be mowed as the tornado blast 
Levels trees in its path ; all nations bow 
In hopeless slavery before our vow 
To rule the world by virtue of a right 
Divine ; our imperial eagles in their flight 
Victorious over land and sea, 
That poor democracy in livery 
Of fools crushed, bringing to earth again 
The splendor of a medieval reign ! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 55 

A peace offensive ! Not with my consent ! 

We want no peace ; war is our element. 

Peace would not give us peace ; 'twould sow the 

seed 
Of wars internal ; no, war is our need 
To keep the people muzzled, still. I see 
At morn, noon, night, that Russian tragedy! 
My crown would go, like that the Romanoff 
So weakly wore ; my days become the scoff 
Of upstarts, ay, perhaps be forfeited 
To soothe the souls of the unnumbered dead 
Laid in untimely graves ! Speed on the strife ! 
Peace is but death to me ; war is my life. 



* * 



56 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE RETREAT 

* * 

Long time the battle raged from the pale dawn 
To which the starry host with orifiammes 
Of gold capitulated, till grave night 
Led forth her sable children to bind sleep 
On wearied eyes ; but when the third eve came 
The invading hordes, with thinning ranks, hearts 

robbed 
Of courage, broke, turned, fled, leaving behind 
Stores, wounded, dying, dead, and as they fled 
Gave to the torch farms, towns, and villages : 
The ever-hungry flames all in their path 
Devoured eagerly. But on their troubled flight 
Death followed fast : the frightened, gas-filled air 
Was torn by shot and shell ; the earth's old breast 
Yawned with deep wounds unclosing, in whose bed 
Thousands of flying Huns found mortal rest. 
With fugitives, cars, horses, the red roads 
Were glutted, on bent heads an iron hail 
Each moment falling, injured men aside 
Crawling, a haggard film shrouding their eyes, 
While others, crippled, moaning, calling death, 
Were heedless trampled. Clattering cavalry 
In fury spurred, to saber right and left 
That foe once menacing now glad to buy 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 57 

Life by surrender. Bombs from whirring planes 
Incessant dropped, exploding, flesh and bones 
Hurling in fragments on all sides. But these 
Were Hohenzollern pawns in its great game 
Of Empire, and in that, defeated, died. 

Back to the Rhine continue your retreat, 
Death reaping in your tortured flanks and rear 
His ghastly harvest, and never dare to breathe 
Where good men are ! Slink to your proper home 
In Prussian marshes by the accusing sea, 
All you whom death declines to liberate 
At present from the bonds of conscience dark 
And terrible, that you at last may feel 
How sharper than the serpent's tooth it is 
To live an outcast in the world, the scorn 
Of nations for your crimes so boasted once, 
Now like a millstone dragging you, and them 
Misleading you, down steeps of infamy! 



* * 



58 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE ARGONNE 

* * 

The toughest job of all they hand 
The dough boys, on the sea or land : 
In face of us a wilderness 
Of gloomy oaks, thru which to press 
O'er tangled vines and nets of wire, 
Bared on all sides to the hot fire 
Of unseen Boches ; here and there 
Trenches invisible from where 
The deadly. fumes of gas arise, 
Followed by fierce, exultant cries 
Tearing the throats of flying Huns, 
As volleys from their sleepless guns 
Thin our brave ranks. But on we go, 
And scatter right and left the foe 
Who feels that one is on his trail 
That does not know the words to fail. 



* * 



SEPTEMBER 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 61 



THE NEW DRAFT 

This is our answer to the foe writ plain 

Without an if or but, where he may see 

The mene-tekel of his destiny, 
And know his ferocious struggles are in vain. 
These millions will go forth to close the reign 

Of force and fraud, the shameless perfidy 

Worshipped so fatuous in Prussian tyranny, 
And the blind horrors groping in its train. 
Youthful or mature, feeling in their soul 

The fires of freedom burning, they will slay 
That gorgon draining day by day its bowl 

Of human blood, a god with feet of clay; 
Rescue imprisoned peace, and on the scroll 

Of olden time emblazon a new day. 



* * 



62 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



A DICTATED PEACE 

What some perceived four years ago 
The world now sees ; opinion slow 
Has veered, and all the winds that blow 
On shores political, or flow 
Sequestered, say, The Hun must go! 

No peace proposed by him can be 
In order, for such enemy 
Is master in deception ; he 
Would promise all, sign, and agree, 
But when he once again were free 
Would smile at our simplicity, 
The treaty spurn with shouts of glee 
And glory in his perjury. 

No ! Kaiser must step down and out, 
Taking with him his rabble rout, 
And thankful be if for deeds base 
A firing squad he does not face ; 
But to its dregs the bitter cup 
Must drink, his plunder render up, 
The violated lands restore 
To splendor as in days of yore, 
The invaded countries east and west 
Evacuate, and leave at rest, 
Navy and mercantile marine 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 63 

Serving no more a war machine, 
Yield to the Allies, to repay 
His pirate boats illegal prey, 
Bid to his Colonies adieu 
Contented now with owners new, 
Part from the bloody kingdoms three 
Brothers in guilt with Germany, 
In terror waiting that just fate 
Time pours on the degenerate. 

These terms are hard, and yet they fall 

Far short of justice ; for not all 

The Teuton race could ever pay 

Would ransom back the honored day 

In which it lived at peace with men ; 

Now, naked, scourged, must to some den 

Stagger, and penance do for crimes 

Which would have shocked the barbarous times. 



* * 



64 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



SAINT MIHIEL 

* * 

Again we meet the fierce invading foe, 
Again we strike a staggering blow, 
Again we lay him low. 

His long career of senseless brutal crime 
Is ending, as our wrath sublime 
Blots him from rolls of time. 

Pours on his head the doom of earth and sky ; 
Cursed by the nations let him die, 
And in oblivion lie! 



* * 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 65 



THE SOVIET REIGN OF TERROR 

Apt pupils in the anarch school, 
By fire and scaffold taught to rule ; 
Your power erected on the slain 
In orgies of a bloody reign, 
Which everywhere on Russias soil 
Her patriot sons mark for your spoil, 
Nor innocence, rank, sex, youth, age, 
Can stem the torrent of your rage. 

Your arts the nation have betrayed, 
Despoiled, divided, helpless laid 
At feet of Prussia to exploit 
For her base use by lies adroit: 
She sought to sway the world by force, 
You paying for your treacherous course 
With stolen gold from your own land 
Writhing beneath your miscreant hand. 

But Prussia will be stricken down, 
In her own bath of blood to drown ; 
While you blood-happy Jacobins 
Hugging the wages of your sins, 
Rush blindly down a precipice 
The livid lips of death to kiss, 
And time your epitaph will write 
Of execrations black as night. 



* * 



66 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE AUSTRIAN NOTE 

"At t^t 
So, peace is wanted, terms you would discuss 
In secret, while above your haunted head 
The Damoclean sword hangs to destroy 
Your coalition 'gainst humanity? 
Our terms are known to all the world, and why 
Repeat them constantly ? Lay down your arms ; 
Evacuate the sad invaded soils ; 
Pledge, and give hostages to guaranty, 
The restoration of the ruined lands ; 
Return the plunder you have borne away ; 
Disband your armies ; to the Allies yield 
Your naval fleets, your mercantile marine; 
The Czecho-Slovaks free, then may we pause, 
And lean upon our sword, and unsmiling feel 
Justice has come to the grieved earth at last. 

We read your note, and nothing saw but words 

Your Satan form concealing. Then arose 

The countless victims of your savagery, 

Towns sacked, and women ravished, their fair breasts 

Cut out with fiendish cruelty to die ; 

Martyrs tossed in the flames to hide the guilt 

Of your rapacity ; the ocean bed 

Strewn with the bodies of the innocent, 

Survivors on their rafts shot basely down 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 67 

With shouts of glee; the priceless heritage 

Of art and letters sacrificed to make 

A royal holiday ; the bayonet 

Driving your hapless captives to a doom 

More wished for than to live beneath your rule 

Where torture and starvation lie in wait: 

We fain would be a moral force to cleanse 

The sickly world of such pollution here ; 

And more, the brave men who in this cause died, 

Forbid that we forsake our duty now. 



* * 



68 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE LOST BATTALION 

* * 

Left in the air, and five days lost, 

We won release at fearful cost: 

A galling fire on every side 

Mowed down the brilliant hope and pride 

Of the battalion, and we all 

Stood ready for the final call. 

Cast off deep in the forest's heart 

Each man resolved to do his part, 

And leave his fate in hands of God. 

Soon half our number in the sod 

Were gathered to their perfect rest; 

On every side the foemen pressed, 

But mid the ghastly heaps of slain, 

Befouled with gas, 'neath crimson rain, 

We fought undaunted, till once more 

O'er hill and dale one evening bore 

Sweet bugle notes of friends, and then 

The blood rushed to our hearts again. 



* * 



OCTOBER 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 71 



BULGARIA 

* * 

Broken, dismayed, you see before you rise 
The ghost of Serbia. Rub your astonished eyes, 
And look again. Behold the very State 
Doomed to destruction by your ungoverned hate, 
Invaded, pillaged, racked by fire and sword, 
Its people slaughtered by your Coburg lord, 
Come to their own once more. The breast of earth 
Opens, and to* avenging troops gives birth ; 
Portentous specters in the gloom stalk round 
From every rood of their dear native ground, 
And forward press in ever-growing throngs 
Demanding payment of their bill of wrongs. 

You were not Teutons, were not Turks, but sprang 

From seed Slavonic, and your treason rang 

The bells of sorrow in the hearts of them 

Who raised you up, and fixed a diadem 

On your scarred brow. The hand that succored you, 

Beneath whose power your tree of greatness grew, 

You turned against, and like a viper bit ; 

And now in sackcloth, tears, and ashes sit, 

Defeated, desolate, an appealing face 

Turned to that wronged, that phoenix-risen race 

Marching resistless, with its Allies great, 

In scales of justice to mete out your fate. 



72 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



TURKEY 

A sick man! Yea, now doubly sick, 
Sick unto death, as disasters thick 
Fall on your head and multiply 
Each day, and stifle the hoarse cry 
That struggles to your parching lips 
At such a horrible eclipse 
Of all your cherished hopes to reign 
With Prussia by the sword again! 

The orgies of your prouder days 
Can never be renewed, — the blaze 
Of glory when you took by storm 
Rome's capital, and flung the form 
Of Christian power contemptuous down; 
When Teuton kings at your dread frown 
Trembled, and did not blush to hold 
Their crowns by homage and by gold. 

Find now a spot in Asia where 
You still may breathe congenial air, 
May slake unbridled fierce desires 
In tides of blood, in living fires, 
May hear again in restless dreams 
The Sultan's brothers dismal screams 
When he ascended the dark throne 
Indifferent to their dying groan. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 73 



THREE! 

* * 

Crowns, kingly crowns, I offer now ; 
And if they will not fit your brow 
I'll alter them, small, medium, large, 
Size guaranteed, and make no charge. 
What am I bid? A million, say, 
Since truly 'tis a happy day 
For you and all when, in the dust, 
Crowns are thrown down, to lie, and rust! 

The Russian and the Grecian crown 

Blazing with jewels and renown, 

I auctioned here a year ago. 

Come, now, your satisfaction show, 

And bid for this : the diadem ' 

Is studded with each precious gem 

Which may be taken out and sold, 

And Liberty Bonds bought with the gold. 

Two millions ! Thank you. Going, gone ! 
Watch for the crown by Kaiser worn ! 



* * 



74 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



AUSTRIA 

Sitting 'mid ruins, desolation wide 

Confronting you, with vengeful eyes, on every side, 

Starvation leering with its unkept face 

From country bower, from silent market place, 

Stalking thru splendid cities where your power 

Nursed music and letters in its happier hour, 

You turn to your victorious foe again 

In an endeavor to prolong your reign 

By promises and sophistries which now 

Can never more deceive : your brazen brow, 

Stamped with the bloody hand of nameless crime, 

Must bow, scorned, in the pillory of time. 

You cast your lot with Prussia, chose to be 
Her vassal, partner in her infamy, 
To wade thru horrors with the fierce delight 
That leaps in bosoms of the sons of night, 
To fling a fire-brand when the Potsdam gang 
Was all prepared to set its deadly fang 
In bosom of humanity, to roll 
On men the waves of slaughter, drain the bowl 
Of guilt, fraud, vileness to the dregs, and dance 
While played the Prussians as they ravaged France, 
And now, retreating, burn with hellish glee, 
The towns from which they, whipped with scor- 
pions, flee! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 75 

Away! not any more will we our terms repeat! 
Strew ashes on your head, the garlic eat ; 
And when you learn to read our language plain, 
"Surrender unconditional," come back again ! 



* * 



76 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



GERMANY 

A hunted wolf with dripping fang you fly 
Deep in the forest, there to lick your wounds. 
Concealed from your pursuers. Have you finished ? 
Is your marauding done? Do you now feel 
That sea, land, sky, sufficient have endured 
From your malignity? Is not your arm 
Wearied with slaughter? Does not your black heart 
A brief rest need before you leap with scowling brow 
On babes to dash their brains with fury out, 
Or maidens rifle of their greatest jewel here? 

O life ! O men for whom my heart drops blood, 
You were not born to be the cannon's food, 
The pawns of kings moved on the mortal board 
Of their foul will ! To slay your fellow men 
For causes that you wot not of, possess 
No interest in ! To bring on circles dear 
Despair, loss, agony, because your masters 
With peace are ennuied, with cynicism view 
The humble so long suffering, and the souls 
Who pray to be with them that are at rest! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 77 

No, Germany, we can not measure, weigh, 

Compute your guilt. Our heads with frenzy reel 

In doubling in this so tempestuous sea 

The capes of sorrow. On your hands, face, breast, 

We see the red clots there that never time 

May wash away, nor all these tumbling seas 

That wander homeless under barren skies. 

Far better that you fall upon your stained sword, 

And by self-punishment some treaty make 

With moral law before the final da3^. 



* * 



78 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



NEMESIS 

At last you come, daughter of night, how long 
Awaited, with your helm and wheel, still strong 
To bind the criminal with iron thong, 
And execute the punishment of wrong. 

In poppied fields what time you seemed to sleep, 
Uncaring how the Prussian victims weep, 
How they are ruthless plunged in the vast deep, 
How tongues of blazing war around them leap ! 

In pride of heart, in lauded infamy, 
The Kaiser and his godless generals see 
Fortune lay at their feet a treasury 
In foreign lands, to glut their villainy. 

But you are come, and you have work to do : 
Still living with their plunder is the crew, 
With forehead unabashed, as if they knew 
No law but what they from the devil drew. 

And shall these rats desert the sinking ship, 

And off to some delightful villa slip, 

And Burgundy and Widow Cliquot sip 

With hands ferocious that with blood still drip? 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 79: 

Bring out the block, the gallows and the noose, 
And on them set your every fury loose ; 
And never let their pleadings once induce 
Mercy with vengeance to make any truce. 



* * 



THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



FRANCE 

Soon it is over, and the agony 
Gf four long years but in the future be 
An ugly dream. Come to our side, and lay 
Your head on our fond breast, and thrust away 
The racking fears which have so long beset 
Your days and nights, that life seemed but a debt 
So large incurred for you by thankless grief 
No time could pay, or bring your soul relief. 

Your auburn locks have blanched to a dull white ; 
Departed from your eyes the tender light 
Familiar there ; your merry voice is grave, 
Laden with sighs ; but in your face the brave 
Demeanor dwells which thru those cruel years 
Supported you amid your blinding tears, 
Your infinite wounds, your losses terrible 
That made your land the vestibule of hell. 

It dawns: be tranquil yet a little while! 
Triumph will bring you back the radiant smile 
That hovered on your perfect lips in days 
When we had only trite and formal praise 
For your dear charms ; but now we truly know 
The beauty of your soul, and our eyes flow 
For your vast sacrifices, how you gave 
All that you had democracy to save. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 

The beast that ravished you think of as slain. 
A.nd be you, aureoled, our queen again: 
Your lands restored, your cities new rebuilt, 
With compensation for your best blood spilt, 
If human power can pay the grievous wrong; 
While our love bids an echo of your song 
Come from remembered days, and we adore 
Your faith, your moral grandeur, more and more. 



• • 



82 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



A RAPIER THRUST 

* * 
Come in the open, Max, and show your hand, 

And tell us where you stand ; 
Say if you speak for your plain Fatherland, 

Or for the desperate band 
At bay, choked by the flames its hatred fanned? 

You say, you have set up Democracy 

Brand new in Germany, 
Can show some samples of equality 

That nations always free 
Will make sit up, and view admiringty. 

Before an armistice we fain would know 

If you good faith will show, 
By laying down your arms, and what you owe 

Agree to pay, and go 
From the invaded lands you filled with woe. 

Beware ! You're up against diplomacy 

As strong as destiny : 
It is no vaudeville show in gay Pa-ree 

Where you so loved to be 
Dazzling the demi-monde with repartee! 



NOVEMBER 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 85 



IN THE TOILS 

* * 

Drunk with ambition, swollen with the hope 

To drag a world within the outlaw scope 

Of your dominion, you began a cruise 

Against the peaceful nations, win or lose 

Your motto, as you flung to the proud wind 

The pirate flag in Satan's school designed, 

And sailed the seas, and marched across the lands, 

Blood-hungry, hand in hand with Satan's bands. 

The carouse is ending; from your evil dream 

Waking, on your ulcered heart a sudden gleam 

From heights unseen before in your career, 

Flashes with dazzling light : convulsed with fear, 

Pale writhing in a terrible despair, 

You slink yet deeper in your despotic lair ; 

And try, abject, to measure from afar 

A fall great as dethroned the Morning Star. 

Stay hidden there ! Come never forth again 

To steal along the melancholy plain 

Of life thick set with tombs of our dear dead, 

Upspringing in each spot your footsteps tread, 

Until we can forget the foul disgrace 

You daubed on the fair scutcheon of our race, 

Until you learn the simple A. B. C. 

Of honor, justice, and morality. 



86 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE BROKEN SWORD 

See where it lies, dashed from the Prussian's hand 

Who waved it like a vengeful brand 

Over each rich and quiet land: 

Dishonored, shattered, gory, there it lies, 

Never again to terrorise 

The countries far or near, or tyrannise 

Opinion in an abject race, 

All voiceless there, kissing the rod with spirit base, 

Unmindful of its own unspeakable disgrace ! 

In fires of darker days 

Its steel was tempered, when the bays 

Were bound on robber brows, and hymns of praise 

Extolled the barbaric sword : 

Now, never more will men accord 

To any proud born-in-the-purple lord 

The privilege and method to employ 

Its blood and treasure to destroy 

The homes of peace and joy. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 87 

Go, bury it so deep 

It never from its sepulchre may creep, 

Be brandished more to make the nations weep ; 

But them who wielded it, and gave command 

So brutal to their spurred and booted band 

To desolate their nieghbors' land, 

Bring to the bar of justice stern 

Where they may realize their crimes, and learn 

The axe and halter for them yearn. 



* * 



88 Till' LK.'UiUK OF NATIONS 



FOUR! 

My friends, with joy I greet you here, 
When bells arc ringing, and the clear 

Melodious Voice of victory 

Is sounding - over land and sea. 

Today, however, 1 will elose 

When I of this rail- lot dispose — 

An item just received, and one 

In famousness surpassed by none. 

It is, my friends, the (leriuan crown, 

Of black and tragical renown. 

Which 1 declared a year ago 

1 would oiler you, and offer low. 

What am 1 bid? Remember, friends, 
This lot the small assortment ends 
Of diadems which cumbered earth, 
Excepting one of little worth. 
I'is bloody, but the ugly stain 
I will wash off, if you complain — 
The infamy? Not all the sea 
Can cleanse away its infamy: 
That you must take with it, and think 
The fiend who wore it must now drink 
The cup of woe he forced On us. 
I sell "as is" with ruinous 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 89 

Discount for all defects. No bid ! 

You say the damned crown should be hid 

Deep in the earth, or sent below 

Where he who owned it soon will go 

To bathe him in the fiery lake 

For whose proud lord he put at stake 

His empire and his soul? All right! 

I'll "pass" this lot, and wire tonight 

The consignment is returned. That way — 

Beg pardon, sir, what did you say? 

Sell for account of the Red Cross, 

And let the owner stand the loss! 

Will start it at my upset price, 

And put the thing away on ice? 

Thanks! A million! Going, going, gone! The last 

Memorial of the kingly caste: 

The autocratic age is past! 



* * 



90 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



ODE TO VICTORY 

In this great hour 
Standing within the righteous tower 
Of national fidelity, 
Rejoicing, we behold the outcast enemy 
Vanquished on every land and sea: 
Long, cruel was the night 
Of conflict, fiercely did the evil forces smite 
The valiant champions of right, 
Laying in an untimely grave 
The loved flower of our youthful brave, 
Shaking from turret to foundation stone 
The abode where liberty had flown 

For refuge in the strife, 
And menacing the trembling life 
Termed civilised, while mercy, scourged, was sent 
In utter banishment. 

But let us, in these happy days, 
A paean raise 
With voices free 
To her, sister of strength and valor, Victory! 

Smiling she comes with laurel crown, 
And purpled wings, and palms of wide renown 
To decorate our brow 
While resting 'neath their golden bough 
With us, torn, bleeding, but triumphant now ! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 91 

Who doubted him to see this day, 
Tho dark and hard the travel lay ? 
The order of the universe 
Could not survive the deadly curse 

Of Prussian sway ; 
The Rulers veiled in mystery, 
Sitting in justice, could not see, 
Unmoved, a reign of world-wide villainy ; 
Blind tho it be 
Their servant, mundane Destiny, 
To no base things yields loyalty : 

Yet not the less 
Passed safely thru the desert of distress, 
We will pay tribute to, and ever bless 

The noble souls 
Living and dead, inscribed on glory's rolls, 
Who by their triumph thus renew our lease 
Of life, and give us peace. 



* * 



92 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE SURRENDER 

The naval foxes in their watery holes 

For years lay hidden, save when once they crept 

Forth slyly on a far surprisal bent ; 

But, sighted, back to their mined dens were chased, 

Punished and limping. There, they trembling 

lurked, 
Peering with furtive eyes across the waste 
Of waters where the mistress of the seas 
Ranged proudly, as of yore, in search of foes 
A manly battle seeking. Beneath those seas 
The steel hyenas, their dear brothers, roamed, . 
And wrought, against our human laws despised, 
With ropes around their necks, their dastard crimes, — 
Havoc unknown but to the soulless storms 
Whose angry besoms sweep the terrified deeps, 
Hurling, like them, remorseless and with glee 
Which fiends might shudder at, all to their doom. 

And now "the day" had come, the retributive day 
The titled scoundrels did not reckon with, 
Their plans subverting, flashing on their minds 
Some moral threads are running thru the cloth 
Of man's affairs. Behold a sight the world 
Had witnessed never yet : a squadron once 
Its nation's pride, a terror of the seas, 
Striking its pirate flag, and every prow 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 93 

Moving in humbleness across the waves, 

As drawn by magnet irresistible, 

To moor them silent at the Allied bows, — 

Dreadnaughts, and cruisers, and those submarines 

Whose guilty stains they ask the seas to cleanse. 

But ask in vain ! Rejoice, my countrymen, 

That it has been your great appointed part 

This fortune to ordain, bringing a day 

Of the republic worthy, even one 

Which cradles a new epoch for the world, 

And which the future will remember long. 



* * 



94 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE LEAGUE TO ENFORCE PEACE 

What, would you hold me back, 

A warrior, I, 
Panting, on honor's track, 

To do or die? 

To die for native land, 

As well as live : 
Such is the great command 

My heart would give. 

The years have made you wise, 

But I am young — 
A youth of smiles and sighs, 

By glory stung! 

In days of peace to come, 

Remember me 
Who loved the fife and drum 

So faithfully! 



Such is the spirit that controls, 
From force of blood, those ardent souls ; 
But War must slay himself at last, 
And be a memory of the past. 



DECEMBER 1918 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 97 



THE LAND OF FREEDOM 

* * 

Twas here our fathers planted deep 

The seeds of liberty, 
That their aspiring sons might reap 

The harvest of the free; 
Or, fleeing from their native land, 

A shrine erected here, 
Which should thru coming ages stand, 

For tyranny to fear. 

And we have kept that faith sublime 

Despite temptations great, 
Preserved our heritage from time, 

Been proud of our estate, 
Been loyal to the glorious name 

Which freedom's choice bestowed, 
And worthy of the spotless fame 

We to those fathers owed. 

But now in battle we have slain 

Her last remaining foe, 
That monster who, with sword and chain, 

Had filled the earth with woe ; 
And to such nations on the globe 

That would with freedom live, 
That gracious form, in starry robe, 

Benignly to them give. 



98 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



WILLIAM HOHENZOLLERN 

* * 

To be thus is nothing! A station high, 

Storms of applause, the guest of every eye, 

To stand tip-toe on life and jostle death, 

Is living only, only worthy breath ! 

To hurl my legions at a stubborn foe, 

Feeling the tingling joy, the radiant glow 

Which visit the heart when troops from my firm wall 

Of steel recoil, and, crushed, in masses fall ; 

While heroic shells, as zigzag lightnings leap 

From cloud to cloud, pour down in columns deep 

On decimated, weltering, withered ranks, — 

For that I lived, for that I render thanks! 

The squeamish world ! What pother did it make 
When I, by Thor anointed, sought to slake 
My will in streams of blood ! Does it not know 
That war is — war, and can not mincing go 
Meek, arm in arm with peace ; that nations fight 
As armies once, and unrestrained must smite 
All within their borders and the untamed sea, 
And which, in spite of England, shall be free ! 
Shall Prussia raised by Prussia's god to be 
Uber alles, shrink in timidity 
When dawns the day to realise her dream, — 
Her Hohenzollern line on earth supreme? 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 99 

Not long shall I dwell here in dull repose ! 

By right divine I ruled, and will foreclose 

My mortgage on the nation when the hour 

Arrives to reassert my regal power. 

Kings raised the German people to a height 

Of envied glory : democratic night 

They will not wander in, but for the blaze 

Of imperial sway will hunger all their days. 

From transient exile they will call me back, 

When wearied of that Socialistic quack 

Who usurped my heritage, and strides around • 

Those palaces which I made holy ground. 



* * 



100 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE MARCH TO THE RHINE 
To W. H. 

• * 

Three months you dealt your blows 

In fury on your foes, 
Advancing step by step, and mile by mile, 

Where mountains frown and valleys smile 

Sadly in streams of blood 
Which dingles, fields and orchards flood, 

And dispossess 
The tenantry of fruitfulness ; 

But on and on you press 
With such amazing stubbornness, 
Such valor, tactics, strategy, 
The puzzled, beaten enemy 

Your arms enchanted deem, 
Or they, perchance, in some repulsive dream 

Lie tossing, which the morn 
Rising, would show them only fancy-born. 

But never from that dream could they awake, 
No victor morning break 
On murky clouds of their defeat ; 
Surrender, or disgrace of more retreat 
Could save them in that dismal hour 
From Pershing's hosts and freedom's power 
Pledged, on that distant shore, 
The sacred rights of nations to restore. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 101 

And so your gallant far-flung line 

Victorious nears the storied Rhine, 

And sees her guardian waters shine 

Between you and the fallen foe : 
Your honors won, 
Your duty done, 
Let waiting hearts with rapture overflow, 
Glad hands weave laurel chaplets for your brows 

Beneath the palms' fame-dropping boughs, 

Bid Janus, in his temple, crown 
You like the heroes of antique renown ; 

But for those bravest of the brave 

Who freely in devotion gave 
The sacrifice supreme, build them a tomb 
Which would make monarchs sigh for such a doom. 



* * 



102 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE ARMISTICE 

Crushed, beaten to a phantom, made the slave 
Of nations whom we scorned, hope in her grave, 
And also in their graves a million brave 
Men drilled in vain the Fatherland to save! 

Our fleet surrendered which we built to sweep 
The pride of England from the faithless deep 
In which our U boat crews for ever sleep, 
And whose exploits we now must doubly weep! 

Our commerce gone, our industries destroyed, 

Hated in every land where we enjoyed 

The highest place, our energies employed 

So cunning we with wealth and power were cloyed! 

Despoiled of colonies beyond the sea 
Which we had governed with atrocity 
No doubt, but which were destined long to be 
Source of our glory and prosperity ! 

Stripped of those provinces won by the sword 
Wielded by kings we had so long adored, 
Their peoples given to foes for years abhorred, 
To groan in bondage to a foreign lord ! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 103 

Wrecked by a debt immense we can not pay, 
The cost of indemnities the Allies lay 
With ruthless hand as we bore ruthless sway 
Over those countries deemed our proper prey ! 

In every household desolation dwells, 
Burns in our daily thoughts a thousand hells 
Whose imps are ever ringing those harsh bells 
Of horror and despair, — a lost soul's knells ! 

The princes who have brought us to this pass 
Have fled, and left us in this wide morass 
Thus floundering, to our proletarian class 
Such ruin vast bequeathing — Oh! alas! 

Sinking beneath the weight of this sad load, 
Poor Ebert staggers where they gaily rode 
To spur of world dominion, and the goad 
Of mad ambition to this dark abode ! 



* * 



104 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE PRESIDENT IN FRANCE 

* * 

Savior of France, we greet you now 
With happy heart and smiling brow, 
And lay with praise and love complete 
Our tribute at your conquering feet. 
One feeling deep the nation fills, 
One sentiment its bosom thrills, 
For you and for the noble power 
Which in our worst, our darkest hour, 
Sprang to our side, and in the storm 
Beating upon our drooping form, 
Held up that shield without a stain 
'Gainst which the Prussian fought in vain. 

Savior of France, four years we stood. 
Unflinching, pale, knee-deep in blood, 
Breasting the waves of war that rolled 
As in the evil days of old 
From German forests, breeding place 
Of Odin's loved and ruthless race ; 
And in the devouring furnace threw 
Our sons, with hearts that never knew 
Complaining, till your legions came 
In countless numbers, with a name 
Unknown to defeat, and in his throat 
Plunging your sword, our dread foe smote. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 105 

Savior of France, just as we turned 

To you in war, and for you yearned 

So now when peace dawns on the land 

We look to you to weave with hand 

Of justice stern, impartial right, 

A treaty that will sweep the night 

Of war forever from the skies 

Of this sad life, bidding arise 

An endless peace to dwell on earth 

Which shall in human hearts give birth 

To children of fraternity 

In every land, on every sea ! 



* * 



106 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



ENGLAND 

Last but not least 

Amid the nations, at the feast 

Of peace assembled, in your praise 
A tuneful note I raise. 

Had I forgot you? Had I quailed 
Before the storm of prejudice which had assailed 
Your policy and motives in the past? 
I knew your lot in former times was cast 
With German kings whose feud with liberty 

Compelled us to be free. 
Three hundred years ago my fathers crossed the sea 
To seek religious freedom, and to face, 

On unknown shores, a bloodier race. 

But that is past, and in this hour 
I would remember but the splendid power 
You have achieved throughout the world, to crown 
Our race and language with superior renown. 

Hearted like marble, steadfast as the rock, 
You met, undaunted, the tremendous shock 
Of the Imperial legions pouring down 

In myriads on field and town, 
Intent to subjugate the nations free, 
And, bound to Kultur's chariot, drag to slavery. 
From home, from overseas, from cot and hall, 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 107 

You called your sons who, springing to that call, 
Flocked to their mother's side, and while your navy 
held 
The foe in grip of iron, felled 
The despot's bands on soils invaded : with voice clear, 
Wherever freedom called, responding, "Here!" 

The struggle ended, to your shores we send 
A noted diplomat, the warmest friend 

Of justice that presides 
Over a nation. In the tides 
Of strong opinions he will cast 

An anchor to moor fast 

Peoples in ports of peace; 

War's tempest bid to cease; 

Forge fetters to control 
A nation proved to be without a soul. 



* • 



108 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE WATCH ON THE RHINE 

* * 

Halt! Halt, I say! The countersign! 
None passes by the lordly Rhine 
While we are stationed here. You say 
Hunger has driven you this long way 
Across the river where we stand 
To watch and guard the German land. 
Take this, and go back to your friends, 
And tell them that our hatred ends 
When arms are grounded, and the roar 
Of deadly guns is heard no more; 
But here we stay, despite your plea, 
Until you pay the penalty. 

Is this the soil where grew that tree, 
That Upas tree, autocracy, 
Which erst this country's spirit broke, 
And planned to fix its cruel yoke 
On all the world ? No fairer sight 
Of smiling vineyards, waters bright, 
Has ever met my view as here 
Before my wondering eyes appear: 
A fertile realm, salubious air, 
Pictures of joy unroll, save where 
Old castles breathe their cold farewells 
From walls where ruin greyly dwells. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 109 

Stand! Who goes there? — A Rhenish lass, 
The slyph's own form, eyes that surpass 
The beauty of the dawn! Ah me! 
Unfettered, I would prisoner be 
To such a soldier! — I regret 
That pretty foot may not be set 
On this pledged shore: nay, do not speak, 
Or loyalty perforce will leak 
Out of my heart ; but quickly go, 
Taking the homage of a foe. — 
How could such lovely women breed 
Monsters to make the nations bleed ! 



* * 



JANUARY 1919 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 113 



THE NEW YEAR 

* * 

Look back, and see the phantoms of the years 

Huddled in silence, on their ashen lips 

The cheerful greetings of their younger days 

Frozen and dead. The hopeless pall descends 

Over the melancholy scene, and calls 

The lightnings flash, and rolls of thunder on, 

To wrap in deeper folds of mystery 

A judgment on man's deeds. A ghastly ruin 

Spreads wide, old kingdoms swallowed down 

The throats of change; the pride of other days 

That danced on the volcano's flowery crust, 

Perished in its gay prime ; ambitions vast 

Blasted in fiery breath of earth- wide war; 

While multitudes of men, the innocent, 

And guilt's apprentices, sleep in fresh graves 

Watered with tears, or sought by wandering hope 

Which feeds and lodges in the human heart, 

And illumes in halls of time the bitter gloom. 

With chastened spirit now we turn to you 

For consolation, for a promise born 

In bed of truth, and which no brother is 

To mockery, that by such sacrifice 

Surcease of sorrow we have earned, and may 

Teach our lips mirth, and on our souls engraft 

New buds of happiness to bloom, and grow, 

And ripen in the sun of a long peace, 

When every sword shall in its scabbard rust, 



114 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

And war be stranger here. Demobilise 

The regiments of selfish interests, 

And bid them plough the fields of altruism; 

Harness in service of humanity 

The steeds of nature running wildly round; 

And long for learning rather than for land ; 

For justice, not dominion. Then life's skies 

Might be spanned by a bright perpetual bow 

Gleaming 'mid tears, a seraph's joyful tears. 



* * 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 115 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

* * 

Dead ! But your work is done, done well, 

For ages on the rolls to dwell. 

It waked the conscience of the world, 

From pride of place it sternly hurled 

The would-be rulers of the state. 

Your voice seemed like the voice of fate 

Calling the country to prepare 

If still it had the wish to wear 

The rose of freedom. Day and night 

You labored with a spirit bright, 

All foes defying, to arouse 

The nation to renew those vows 

Pledged by the fathers in the days 

They passed thru revolution's blaze 

To found till time shall cease to be 

The great republic of the free. 

After life's fitful fever, sleep 
Beneath our benedictions deep, 
Tho we for you too early weep! 



* * 



116 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE RED FLAG 

What means this portent ? And what answer make 
Its challenge? Lands half civilised, and lands 
Nursed at the breast of order, see that sign 
Raised and advancing. When the hoary locks 
Of feudalism and autocracy 

Were bathed in blood, and in the grave war laid 
Their unlamented forms, we freely breathed, 
And in our visions glimpsed a fairer world 
W T here passion had been drowned in reason's lake, 
Where justice, clad in white, with timid steps, 
A throne ascended, when, thru frightened eyes, 
We saw a fresh contestant in the field. 

This banner which makes of our dearest blood 
A symbol, and which homage asks of men 
In every land, in workers' hands is held, 
And pledges war on war. The cost of war 
In blood and treasure has been paid by them 
Who labor with their hands, and now have won 
The greatest war in annals of the world, 
Making the world safe for democrac}'. 
Lay not another straw upon its back, 
Lest it should break ; but let our greatest minds 
Leap on the deck, and steer the human craft 
O'er tranquil seas into the ports of peace. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 117 

Make no mistake, my masters ! Face to face 
Glaring 1 , behold a system from the loins 
Of the past sprung, now groping in the dark, 
An infant giant that upon our heads 
May pull the temple down. That laboring class 
It is, producers of all wealth, and none 
Possessing, that so looms in mighty hosts 
Beneath that flag, and comprehends at last 
Its strength prodigious. Look to it! We stand 
On the broad threshold of an order new 
Which wants its paradise on its own earth, 
And wants it now ; yea, wants it here and now. 



* * 



118 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



ARABIA 

This whimsical protest is apropos of some remarks 
delivered by Prince Feisel last week in Paris on the 
subject of exploiting the resources of that celebrated 
country which has sent him as a delegate to the 
Peace Conference. 



Now, Prince, what is it you are giving us? 

Commercialise your Araby, lay rails, 

Charter monopolies, and mills erect 

Where Moses smote the rock, and lightnings wove 

A crimson robe around the trembling form 

Of Sinai when upon the tabled stone 

Jahveh wrote his dread words? Coal, iron, oil 

Sleep in your, country's bosom: capital 

Will rouse them to activity, and lay 

Your unfathered land at door of guardian wealth ! 

O Prince ! can you not leave us, saddened so, 

A province for the soul, where the winged feet 

Of fancy may disport, and the proud sons 

Of king imagination hold their court? 

Greece has been lost, and holy Palestine 

Will follow: must we sell the camel-train, 

To autos sacrifice the noble steed 

Born in the desert, fleet as wind, and when 

A whistle blows crowd in a factory, 

Or counting-room, and freedom know no more? 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 119 

Dear Prince, one only land we would preserve 

From the juggernaut of progress, there to roam 

Unfettered where a sky bends over us 

Eternally serene, where frankincense 

All day salutes us, where Mohammed once 

Saddled for Paradise, and Ali rode 

Forth with the sword and Koran in his hand, 

Bidding the nations choose. Ah ! thus remain ! 

Surely the League of Nations will excuse 

One truant at the prayer of Poetry ! 



* * 



120 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



HIS RETURN 

I clasp you in my arms again, 

Your kisses thrill my brows, 
And to my breast your form I strain, 

And softly breathe my vows : 
I can not tell what joy I feel, 

What raptures throng my heart, 
To think you will those raptures seal, 

And never more depart. 

I do not care what rank you won, 

What honors crown your name ; 
I know your duty well was done, 

And that is noblest fame ; 
A marshal's baton can not give 

More glory in my eye, 
Than feeling that for me you live, 

That I for you would die. 

And I will pay the Power divine 

A life of daily prayer, 
As on your bosom I recline, 

And all your feelings share 
Of gratitude that you have passed 

The risks of land and sea, 
And filled my cup so full at last 

Of this felicity. 



FEBRUARY 1919 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 123 



THE VACANT CHAIR 

* * 

In thousands they are coming back 

To wives and parents dear, 
But you — Ah! life is doubly black 

To me in mourning here: 
In tears I hover round your chair, 

And bend my heavy head ; 
My heart its burden can not bear 

Since you are with the dead. 

If I had known you would be slain, 

And laid in Flanders field, 
I would have followed in your train, 

And on your grave have kneeled, 
And watered with my burning tears 

That lone and sacred sod, 
And sacrificed my future years 

To tread the path you trod. 

For in this chair you sit no more, 

No more you smile on me, 
As in the happy days of yore 

Ere you had crossed the sea ; 
And memory now can only bring 

More sadness to my heart, 
And make me, as I feel its sting, 

More eager to depart. 



124 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



POLAND 

* * 

If I have read your annals true 

You have been dead for many a year. 
And now arise with vigor new 

To run on earth a fresh career. 
The Russian-Prussian-Austrian storm 
Beat fiercely on your suppliant form, 

And veiled in night 

The regal light 
That led your fortune to such envied height. 
Three hundred years your valiant sword 
Protected from the Turkish horde 
All Christendom, and your reward 
The fetters of an alien lord ! 

'Neath foreign flags your sons have fought, 
In foreign lands their souls have sought 

The freedom which you could not give ; 
But every where their footsteps trod 
Those souls lived on their native sod, 

And only there could live : 
And now they hear the mighty voice 
Of one who bids their land rejoice : 

Poland is free! 
She drinks the waters of democracy, 
And eats again the bread of liberty 
From the Carpathians to the sea! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 125 

The joyful sound thrills earth and sky ; 
In the still tomb where patriots lie 

Is heard, who from their sleep 

Delighted wake, and slowly creep 
Forth from their shrouds, to list the anthems deep 
Which up and down the re-born country sweep : 
There, Casimer and Sigismund review 
A prospect nobler than their subjects knew ; 
And Sobieski in his martial mind 
Scatters the Turks once more on every wind ; 
And Kosciusko rallies thick around 
That last brave band whose blood enriched the 
ground 

When he and Freedom fell: 

They smile to hear the tyrants' knell 
Which tells their darling land is free, 
Avenged by time and destiny. 



* * 



126 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



ARMENIA 

* * 

War is my theme ; I only know 
To hurl the spear and bend the bow, 
To hold the soldier's drooping head, 
Blazon the triumphs of the dead. 
But grizzled veteran as I am 
I have a soul, and fain would damn 
With strength of an indignant verse 
The miscreants long allowed to curse 
Lands they had conquered in a day 
Our Christian kings were wont to pray, 
And idly see a foe subdue 
Realms where their faith was born, and first it grew. 

I gaze upon your mountains crowned 
With deep stained snows, where the dove found 
Rest for her weary wing ; the vale 
Where once our primal parents, pale, 
Talked with their God ; and now I view, 
Plying their trade, the dastard crew 
Up to their knees in blood, blood, blood ; 
On every side the ghastly flood 
Creeping, and casting a dull eye 
On its sad victims where they die, 
Fond households lapped with greedy tongue, 
None spared, all perishing, all, old and young. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 127 

Why were they sent to such hard life? 
Born in a tomb, born with a knife 
Protruding from their bleeding heart; 
From cradles early to depart 
This world ; ay, shaking hands with death 
While they were drawing infant breath! 
Perchance some few are living yet, 
Whom may be paid part of the debt 
We, happier, owe humanity, 
By throwing in that crimson sea 
So swirling, surging, swallowing all, 
Succor, in answer to their dying call. 



* * 



128 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 

High seated on a throne of bleaching skulls, 

His footstool reeking SAvords, a canopy 

Of filthy vultures, listless, gorged with blood, 

War sat complacent, one arm on his knee 

Resting, a hand upon another placed, 

And bending forward proudly as he viewed 

Life at his feet ; a smile, slow, sinister. 

Crept o'er his iron features, counting so 

His subjects, fruit from trees of helpless lands, 

Plucked in the bloom of youth, and quick devoured, 

Rivers of tears drunk eagerly, he still 

Unsated, more demanding, more and more. 

Now this will end ; this monarchy of hell 

Will be subverted, the red diadem 

Lurid with snakes, matted with gorgons dire, 

Torn from the brow of War, in the appalled sea 

Flung, — scepter, axes, rods and panoply. 

Crowded with graves, the frenzied earth rebels ; 

Ocean moans in his agony ; the sky 

Frowns at the devastation which her rains, 

Her golden sun with kisses warm and long, 

Along with gentle hand of quiet time, 

Must work repairing, from his crucible 

Hurling the passions which would wreck the world. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 129 

Yes, even we were in Arcadia born ! 
The long, long night thru which the monster reigned 
Fades in a delicate amber where a flag 
New to the earth appears : its spotless folds 
Float on the zephyrs which glide furtively 
From bosom of the dawn ; by one great will 
That standard travels near and far-off lands, 
Calling the nations to a Roman peace 
Once more on earth : that radiant banner wide 
Streaming, the despot sees, and knows his rule 
Is ended, staggers from his throne, and falls 
Into the grave which he had dug for men. 



* * 



130 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



CLEMENCEAU 

Ce n'est rien ! Ay, we hope so, for your sake 

And for the sake of France ; but let us think 

It is an echo, harsh, malevolent, 

Of the great conflict which has filled the world 

With loss and woe. That struggle was akin 

To elemental warfare, ruthless, long; 

Kingdoms went down before its fiery blast ; 

The cyclone tore away the bonds that held 

Sad nations in subjection; boundary lines 

Were, by the torrents born in springs unseen, 

Scattered on every side; voices long mute 

Recovered speech, in accents furious, strange, 

Their wrongs recounted : such the change so vast, 

Such the upheaval whose true counterpart 

We find in geologic wars alone. 

We dwelt on a volcano, its rough crest 

Rich mantled by time's unobtrusive hand 

With flowers and vines, 'mid which we careless 

strolled. 
Quaffing the ruby nectar that subdues 
The sentries of the mind, and heeded not 
The crouching form of that malignant foe 
To all our peace, slinking a serpent first 
Among the sweetest flowers, with baleful eyes 
Drinking our happiness, anon transformed 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 131 

Into that ancient appetite, grim War, 

To fall on us unsparing : France borne down, 

You raised, doubled her strength, with ardor filled 

Her soul desponding, then the fleeing form 

Of victory placed in her arms. Live long 

For her applauding you have loved so well! 



* * 



MARCH 1919 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 135 



MARCHING HOME 

* * 

Dear people, we come to you now 
With trophies and banners %i high 
Smiles making their home on our brow, 
Joy dancing in every bright eye ; 
Our trials and sorrows are past, 
The work which you gave us is done, 
Your foe is defeated at last, 
The triumph you asked for is won. 

The Prussian for years had defied 
All nations of Europe arrayed, 
And millions on millions had died 
Till sternly we sprang to their aid : 
The waves of his battle we met, 
And vainly they dashed on our breast ; 
And never the Hun will forget 
How we laid his battalions at rest. 

We came, and we saw, and we drew 
The sword that to triumph was born, 
That drank up the foe as the dew 
Is drunk by the glances of morn : 
But now they are laid in their grave, 
And that sword we return to your hand 
It has guarded the home of the brave, 
And is honored in every known land. 



136 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



HOME AGAIN 

* * 

Once more, once more we tread our native land, 

And breathe our native air, 
Cheered by the clasping of a friendly hand. 

The glances of the fair, 

Their smiles, their kisses sweet, 
Which seal and make our victory complete. 

In such a cause who would not give his all ; 

In cause of truth and right 
Who would not rally at his country's call 

With ardor, pride, delight; 

And deem her debt is paid 
By such a welcome in his honor made. 

Proudly we stroll the old familiar ways, 

Their tokens view again ; 
But round our hearts an unknown feeling plays 

Kin to both joy and pain, 

Which tells there is a change, 
We know not what, to something new and strange. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 137 

For we have raised in but a single year 

Our fortunes to the skies, 
And shown by policy serene and clear 

Where all the honor lies, 

And proved that we will stand 
For justice and for peace in every land. 

And now we happy tread our native soil. 

And breathe our native air, 
And feel repaid for strife and loss and toil 

To drink the glory there, 

And fight in words again, 
For them we love, our wonderful campaign. 



* * 



138 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE INDEMNITIES 

* * 

In wealth abounding, and a busy state 

More wealth producing at a marvellous rate, 

Your sons by cunning brain and dextrous hand 

Making a peaceful conquest of each land 

Beyond the seas ; realms on your borders seized 

When a successful war your lust appeased 

For more dominion ; plots, audacity, 

The pupils of your ingrained villainy, 

And foreign laws deriding, — such the scheme 

Crude, foolish, haunting like a charming dream 

Your felon rulers in that evil day 

Masking, they deemed the world their helpless prey. 

And now the notes are due, and you must pay, 

Pay for those valued lives you swept away 

With mocking glee, superbly confident 

To execute that ugly convenant 

With hell and Satan, a blood rule extend 

Over the earth, and weaker nations bend 

To your despotic will : what genius there 

Untimely perished in the fatal glare 

Of those fierce fires which licked the heels of War, 

Submissive, playing round his reeking car, 

Beneath dark skies where frenzied lightnings roam : 

O brothers early lost, where is your home! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 139 

Why ask if you can pay? No riches now, 

And none with which the future may endow 

Your schools of industry, can liquidate 

The righteous claims of nations desolate 

By your invasion, and the heritage 

Of men in those dead souls on this world's stage, 

Who should have played their part for good or ill, 

No more with eloquence or song to thrill 

Vast crowds acclaiming, or to rain delight .» 

On women's hearts, and hear the prattle bright 

Of children, ere they pass by God's decree 

The silent portals of eternity. 



* * 



APRIL 1919 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 143 



A NEW WORLD 

* * 

I fain would sheathe the sword, 

Take a new pen, 
Any say, with glad accord, 

Peace to all men ! 



* * 



144 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE EXILE 

* * 

How are the mighty fallen ! Once a throne 

Was all too small for his ambition, grown 

So huge that it would rule the world ! 

In fancy, day and night, he saw unfurled 

His dragon banners fly 

Triumphant under every sky ; 

His soldiers camped in every conquered land ; 

North, south, east, west, obeying his command ; 

By bayonets the prostrate world held down, 

And trembling at his frown ! 

How are the mighty fallen ? Far away 

From all the grandeurs of his proudest day, 

He pines beneath an alien roof, and there 

With torture breathes an alien air 

As spirits of his victims rise to view 

In his mind's eye, and ever and anon renew 

All that he was in that great hour 

He flung the dread Imperial power 

Of iron Prussia on his foes ; 

And now at such base close 

Of his career, he shudders at the thought 

He may for such stupendous crimes be brought 

Before the bar, by equity's impartial call, 

To plead for life, stripped of his wealth, rank, 

honors, all, 
And feel the axe's fall, 
And after that the hideous velvet pall. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 145 

How are the mighty fallen ! Once he said 

The moral law is dead ; 

No law shall bar 

Necessity, no nation, man, sun, star ; 

I am companion of divinity, 

And all to me 

Shall bend the knee. 

He little recks such blasphemy, 

But feels, despairing* feels, 

The agony of anguish, shame, remorse, that steals 

In, thru, round his black heart, and tho his life 

Which should have been laid down in manly strife 

Will now be spared, for horror's tooth 

To gnaw on, day by day, the bitter truth 

Awakens in his breast, and multiplies his pains, 

That he must live in chains. 



* * 



14€ THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE VICTORY LOAN 

* * 

They did their part: two million strong 
They crossed the seas to right the wrong 
Inflicted by a felon band 
Resolved to conquer and command. 
Their nation's ships were sunk on sight, 
Men, women, children plunged in night 
Of death, with shouts of scornful glee, 
Or left to perish in the sea. 
For crimes like these which thrust the name 
Of men in an abyss of shame, 
And to uphold the honor due 
Their native land, once more they drew 
The sword that never owned defeat, 
And soon their triumph was complete. 
But some have paid in loss of limb, 
In loss of sight, our ransom grim, 
And some, while we so idle seem, 
Have willing made the sacrifice supreme. 



¥ * 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 147 

They did their part ; let us do ours 
As willing, in these peaceful hours 
Won by their arms. What is the task 
The day and situation ask? 
No more than that we freely lend 
At interest good what we might spend 
In useless ways for selfish ends, 
Instead of reaping dividends. 
If we had lost, the enemy 
Had mulct us in indemnity 
A hundred fold, and plundered too 
Lives, liberty, all that we woo 
With zeal and fervor day by day. 
Naught are we forced in this to pay ; 
We will receive in little time 
All back again : say, you should climb 
After such chances, run a mile 
To catch them flying. Come, invest and smile! 



* * 



148 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



FIUME 

* * 

Fiume by the violet sea 
Your classic beauty is to me 
Like those archaic prows that bore 
The Trojans to your haughty shore. 
Behind, the solemn mountains stand 
As sentries of your enthralled land ; 
Before, the surges curl and play 
On beaches of your sheltered bay, 
While o'er its waters floats that song, 
The barcarolle, which glides along 
Strand, creek and hill, for serenade 
To nymph and satyr in the forest glade. 

Fiume at the mountains' feet, 
Once more your comeliness I greet ; 
Once more I see your maidens fair 
Wade in the surf with ankles bare, 
Or frolic with their lovers gay 
At close of the long summer day, 
As I, bewitched by one dark eye, 
Followed and sighed, as yet I sigh : 
O Italy ! I can not blame 
Your passion for yon lovely dame. 
For who can see her, and remain 
What he had been before love's pleasing pain ! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 149 

Yes, Italy, I share with you 
The love and homage that are due 
Our sad Fiume by the sea : 
Again I feel that ecstasy 
My heart enfolding, when I roamed 
Where Adria's waves so softly foamed 
On beaches great in story, where 
I breathed a more ethereal air, 
And gazed on more purpureal skies. 
Where on me bent those houri eyes 
Still bending there, and since that time 
Reigning the mistress of my lyric rhyme. 



* • 



MAY 1919 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 153 



VERSAILLES 

* * 

Let time recall a scene of other days 

Where here a conqueror strode, and in a blaze 

Of martial glory, flushed with martial pride 

The vanquished spurned, her tears and prayers denied. 

But lo! the whirligig of time requites 
The wrongs inflicted then, the victor smites, 
And lays him bound and helpless at the feet 
Of her whose overthrow he deemed complete. 



* * 



154 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE TREATY 

* * 

Toll your harsh bells ! Strew ashes on your head ; 
In rivers let your bitter tears be shed ; 
For from their nests your birds of hope are fled, 
Your pride so arrogant is palsied, dying, dead! 

Ah ! we must reap what we have sown ; 

In fields where hate and jealousy are grown 

We can not gather the increase 

Of joy and plenty harvested by peace, 

The warm affections and the happiness 

Treading on heels of service which caress 

The author of their being, of those deeds 

Which kindness breeds, 

And which must in the future make this life 

Scene of co-operation, not of greed and strife. 

You chose an outlawed part to lay 

A yoke on franchised nations, and to slay 

All in your way ; 

No law of man or God 

Was recognised in paths your armies trod ; 

Murder was made by you an art so fine 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 155 

In your career of conquest and rapine, 

The bloodiest conquerors of the past 

Rose from their quiet graves, and stared aghast 

At your exploits, and wondered why 

Such old ferocious methods they forgot to try. 

If you had triumphed, He who governs all 

Must have resigned his office there, for then would fall 

The keystone of this universe, 

Condemning man to dwell beneath a curse 

For ever more. But now an infant light 

Creeps on the tempest of our dreadful night, 

And thru the treaty written to requite 

Your foiled designs, struggles the sun of right. 



* * 



156 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



TO THE JERSEY TROOPS 

* * 

A welcome to the Jersey boys, 

Returning home again! 
Bid smiles and tears and noisiest joys 

Swell in a glad refrain 
To show our pride and happiness 

That, all their dangers passed, 
They, crowned with glory and success, 

Are come to us at last! 

They dauntless faced the cruel foe, 

They played the warriors' part ; 
And Saint Mihiel and Argonne know 

How great their hand and heart, — 
That heart that turned the battle's tide 

When hope with some had fled, 
That hand that piled the forest wide 

With pyramids of dead. 

Sound loud their praises in the land 

W T hich they have glorious made ; 
And may the triumphs of their band 

From memory never fade, 
But live thru all the years of peace 

Which wait the ages now, 
And, as their lives flow on, increase 

The honors on their brow ! 



JUNE 1919 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 159 



THE OCEAN FLIGHT 

Now, all aboard for Europe ; let us be 
High rovers over every land and sea, 
No longer by the gyves of custom bound, 
Condemned to mouse upon our native ground, 
To view the self-same skies and stolid hills, 
The scenes that charmed our infancy, the rills 
That prattled by our doors, for even now 
To life cosmopolite we make our bow, 
And shaking off the fetters of old time 
Prepare for any fate, in any clime. 

And do you say the going there is fine, 

Three thousand miles along the foam-capped brine, 

The air is sweeter, and an ecstasy, 

A feeling you at last are truly free 

Circles the heart, and offers to the soul 

A quality of life without control, 

A bond and partnership with the unknown 

Superior to the glamor of a throne 

On the dull earth, with not a parasite 

To mar the tenor of a new delight? 

Come, let us be a courier of the air, 
And drink incessant of the raptures there, 
And trying wings, anticipate the day 
Our lease expires in this house of clay ! 



160 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE TERMS 

Yes, they are hard, and should be so 
To pay in part the debt you owe 
An outraged and afflicted world, 
Millions in life's sweet summer hurled 
Thru steep-down gulfs of death, their doom 
Shrouding in sorrow and in gloom 
All firesides, bankrupting the race 
Of manhood, genius, beauty, grace, 
Bequeathing to the spendthrift sea 
Shipping and cargoes wont to be 
The life of nations, taking toll 
Vindictive all of body and soul 
Helpless its waves traversing, while 
The imps of darkness dance and smile, 
Gloating, that one at least was found 
The depths of infamy to sound, 
And in their brotherhood to dwell, 
Like them still loyal to the king of hell. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 161 

And yet you do not feel a grief, 
Nor know that in the yellow leaf 
Your fortunes are, the brown and sear : 
Impenitent, you would appear 
As one oppressed who did not owe 
A balance for the storm of woe 
Blasting the nations, taxes great 
That will relentless confiscate 
The labor of the present age 
And that which follows, — heritage 
From you who sought to smite and slay 
Freedom and culture in your day, 
And turn the wheels of progress back 
In road of despotism black, 
Where heartless scoundrels wore a crown. 
And peoples shuddered at their frown ; 
Prepare to pay, and learn a prayer 
For that you still may breathe our common air. 



* * 



162 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



THE LAST PHASE 

* * 

I am a man ; 
And nothing that concerns a man do I 
Deem matter of indifference to me. 

Terence : The Self-Tormentor. 



The evil genius of the nations hurled 
From her bad eminence to rule the world, 
And all that world the gentle dove of peace 
Awaiting, that their burdens may decrease, 
And new ideas born of the war hold sway, 
Robing the chastened earth in brighter day,— 
The victors quarrel, scorning to agree 
On making sure the fruits of victory, 
And would prolong the bitter contest still, 
While sordid interests set their churlish will 
Against the common good, helping the foe 
Our triumph to diminish or to overthrow. 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 163 

Meanwhile, the enemy with heart elate 

Such bickering sees, and hopes his righteous 

fate 
May be averted, and with dark design 
Declares the treaty he will never sign. 
Whines he is innocent of guilt or wrong, 
That to his conquerors all the crimes belong 
Which set the world on fire : so arguing, 

schemes 
Foregather in his brain like evil dreams 
To wreak revenge, and reassume his place 
Bestowed by oracles on his great race 
As master of the nations, when the wedge 
In his opponents thrust, destroys their pledge 
Of universal peace, inviting then 
New wars whose issues lie beyond our furthest ken. 



* * 



164 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS 



ODE TO PEACE 

* * 

Cleansed b}' that bath of blood we stand 

Within the chrismal rays of peace, 
Voices of tender sorrow from each land, 
Each mountain side, each ocean strand, 

Arising from this sweet release 

From war's brutality, 

In solumn jubilee 
Wreathing our crimson sword of victory 
With the mementoes of the free. 

Too long the saber and the crown 
Casting on men their baleful frown 

Have held the world in fear : 
The royal culprit who had made 
War and aggression her chief trade 

No more will brandish spear, 

No more pursue her dark career, 
Boasting she only lived to domineer ; 

But bowing down her jewelled brow 
Beneath the melancholy cypress bough, 

Her laurel tresses shorn, 

Despised, forlorn. 

Discredited, foresworn, 
Must press her lips perforce to Lethe stream, 
And never more of conquest dream ! 



POEMS ON THE WORLD WAR 165 

And so the ancient system lies 
In ruins deep before our eyes, 

Never again to rise; 
And as the furious battle-storm 
Raging for years, halts, falters, dies, 
Glides to our arms the weeping form 

Of order and tranquility 
To keep a tryst with liberty ; 
And tho with some things we must part 

Dear to our aching heart, 

Yet by the grace of God 
Bravely the future shall be trod : 
There is a glory on the sea, 

An anthem in the air, 
Which blend into a melody 

We drink like honey fare ; 
And, sheltered by the League of Nations, feel 
A pure contentment thru our bosom steal. 



* * 



THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS: Poems on the 
World War. A Sequel to Martial Lyrics : Poems 
on the War for Democracy. 12 mo. 165 pp. white 
antique paper, with portrait. 

Boards $1.00 

Cloth, gilt top 1.50 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR 

PHILIP OF POKANOKET: An Indian Drama. 
A blank verse drama of the time of King Philip's 
War, 1675-1676. The celebrated sachem of the 
Wampanoags, and historic personages among the 
Puritans and Indians revisit the earth in these 
scenes. 12 mo, 136 pp., cloth, gilt top $1.00 

IN VALES OF HELIKON. 

An ideal journey through the land of song, fol- 
lowed by short poems on love, war, nature, and men 
of genius. 12 mo. 121 pp. with portrait. Cloth, gilt 
top $1.50 

MARTIAL LYRICS: Poems on the War for 

Democracy. 

The sixty poems contained in this volume orig- 
inally appeared in the columns of the Passaic Daily 
News during the first twelve months of our war 
with Germany. They are all short productions, 
ranging from fourteen to forty lines, and dealing 
as topical verses with current events as they arose 
from week to week. The style of the author is plain 
and lucid, free from affectation and obscurity. — 
12 mo. 121 pp. with portrait. 

Wrappers $ .50 

Boards 1.00 

Selling Agent 
LATHROP C. HARPER 
437 FIFTH AVENUE, 
NEW YORK. 



TESTIMONIALS 



"May I not say how much I appreciate your kind- 
ness in sending me a copy of your Martial Lyrics? 
I shall hope some day or other not too far distant 
to have the pleasure of reading them." — WOOD- 
ROW WILSON. 

"Thank you indeed for the charming volume of 
your poems, Martial Lyrics, reprinted from the 
Daily News. It is, as I have glimpsed it, a very 
worthy presentation of your excellent verse. At 
this time I may state, if I have not done so before, 
my very deep admiration of your work." — G. M. 
HARTT. 

"This is a collection of newspaper verses, orig- 
inally published in a Passaic daily. Arranged accord- 
ing to the order of their first appearance, they com- 
prise a running commentary in verse on the World 
War and America's participation therein. There are 
occasional passages of poetic warmth in the verses, 
and not a few felicitous phrases. Her Soldier Boy 
is the best poem in the little book ; it has much 
feeling and a fine simplicity." — CATHOLIC 
WORLD, NEW YORK. 

"There is considerable merit in the several scores 
of poems from the pen of Alfred A. Furman which 
have been embraced in the paper-covered volume, 
Martial Lyrics. Every stanza breathes patriotism 
and supplies motive for carrying on the war to the 
ultimate success of the cause in which we are en- 
listed."— TRENTON TIMES-ADVERTISER. 



"Martial Lyrics ; Poems on the War for Democ- 
racy is good topical verse with the animation of 
passionate patriotism."— SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., 
CHRONICLE. 

"Many thanks for the Martial Lyrics, the best of 
which have your usual dignity and quiet force. I 
am glad you wrote them, and glad you have a second 
series under way."— EDMUND VANCE COOKE. 

"I have examined the Lyrics only cursorily, but 
have caught sight of a gem here and there. I am 
glad you could picture the phases of the stupendous 
world's war with so fluent a pen. Your muse has 
been very faithful. Evidently she has settled down 
to a life-long devotion. She could not do better !" 
—GEO. T. WELCH. 

"I have already read a number of the poems, and 
wish to congratulate you on your skill as a poet. It 
is a pleasure indeed to be allowed to peruse a vol- 
ume of poetry of so lofty a tone. You have per- 
petuated in verse many of the important events of 
the war, and those verses will be more highly es- 
teemed as time goes on." — OSCAR WEGELIN. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





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